Fellows program gives undergraduates chance to lead
Even some of the most dedicated students scour the schedule of classes for ways to make their Fridays a quick day. But every Friday afternoon, Jenny Saffran’s Undergraduate Teaching Fellows meet to discuss their progress in that week’s section, and their lesson plans for next week.
Child Psychology’s (Psychology 560) eight motivated Undergraduate Teaching Fellows teach their peers once a week in an optional, one-credit discussion section.
Psychology professor Saffran began the program out of frustration that there weren’t enough psychology teaching sssistants to hold discussion sections for the class.
“Students need to be able to talk about these topics and engage them in more of a hands-on way,” she says, adding that the program also has inherent benefits for the teaching fellows themselves.
“So many of our undergraduates go on to teach in some guise or another,” she says. “It just seemed like a wonderful opportunity to get to experience what it would be like to teach while they’re still deciding what to do with their lives.”
About six years ago, Saffran decided to put her idea into action when she applied for a research grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant required the applicant to describe an innovative teaching technique they intended to implement. Saffran described her idea for the Undergraduate Teaching Fellows program on the application.
Not only was she awarded the grant, but Saffran eventually won the Presidential Early Career Award from President Clinton for her efforts.
Although they both lead discussion sections, the logistical similarities between teaching assistants (TAs) and Undergraduate Teaching Fellows end there. While TAs are required to evaluate their students on a weekly basis, Undergraduate Teaching Fellows don’t have the authority to grade their peers. Instead, students in discussion sections are graded on attendance and completion of a final project, in addition to their exam scores.
According to Saffran, the sections are extremely popular, and there are always more students who want to take them than there are spaces. But not only is there a great demand to be in the sections, but the teaching fellow position itself is also highly coveted.
This semester, her third semester running the program, Saffran interviewed 24 out of 60 applicants and chose eight. In addition to having content knowledge from either having taken Child Psychology or done research in the area, Saffran looked for leadership ability and creativity above all else.
Saffran has to pay particularly close attention to the students she interviews because she always has her teaching fellows teach in pairs, and she has to make sure she pairs them up effectively.
“I match-make,” she says. “I try to think of students who have complementary skills.”
And her teaching fellows say she’s done a good job.
“We usually are on the exact same page,” says teaching fellow Lindsay Connell of her relationship with her teaching partner, Stacey Paulos.
The pair adds that Paulos, a psychology and zoology major, is knowledgeable with the biological aspects of the course, while Connell, a psychology major, is often able to articulate the bigger picture to students, as well as add the creative edge to group activities.
Ashley Nelsen also says that pairing her with psychology and neurobiology major Shanan Harkness was a smart choice.
“If I’m not necessarily sure on a specific topic, Shanan usually knows quite a bit about it and vice versa,” says Nelson, a psychology major obtaining a certificate in integrated liberal studies and religious studies. “We can look at the same kind of information differently, and sometimes, it’s just a matter of saying something differently to make that clearer to the students.”
Aside from just logistical purposes, the teaching fellows enjoy teaching together for the built-in support.
“[Teaching in pairs] helps a ton, especially the first couple times because you’re really nervous,” says Connell.
Paulos agrees. “If you’re on your own, you don’t always feel as confident about your choices.”
But Saffran adds that it’s normal to be anxious on the first day. “They’re all terrified on the first day, but so am I,” she says. “I think any good instructor, even if you’ve been doing it for a long time, you should still have butterflies on that first day.”
Saffran quickly adds that “it’s amazing how quickly you start to see them feeling really confident.”
For Harkness, all it took was some planning to ease her nerves. “Once we had everything planned out, down to the minute even, once we knew exactly what we were going to do and how we were going to do it, walking into discussion wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be,” she says.
Yet being in a position of authority over their peers added an extra challenge on the first day that traditional instructors don’t typically face.
“It’s important to set the tone right from the beginning,” says Connell. “The first day we said, ‘We’re here to help you guys, we’re not here to lecture.’”
Harkness agrees. “Even though we are in the position of teaching a class, they are still our peers, and so we walk a very fine line between having authority and not having authority,” she says.
A little more than halfway through the semester, Saffran asked students to fill out teaching evaluations for their peer section leaders. The teaching fellows were pleased with the results.
“They were really positive,” Paulos says. “They were all really appreciative of the effort we put in.”
Connell agrees. “It was nice to know they realized we were putting a lot of time and effort into it and that we were helping them,” she says.
Eventually, the teaching fellows will have to fill out evaluations on their experiences as well.
“They routinely talk about how this was one of the most maturing experiences they’ve had,” Saffran says.
“Overall, the course has given us a sense of responsibility, and, in turn, given me at least a better sense of how mature I am and how responsible I am,” says Nelson. “I think it affects everything about you.”
Harkness agrees. “It’s definitely been a growth experience,” she says. “[It’s] a way to grow as a person, not even just as a teacher. You find out a lot about yourself.”
Once they shook off their first-day jitters, it was time to have fun and let the creativity they were chosen for run freely.
During one of their more memorable discussion sections, Harkness and Nelson had their students write children’s books in groups incorporating themes from the class. Afterwards, the pair sat on the floor with their students, who read them the books they had written in infant-directed speech — the technical term for baby talk.
“It’s a child psych class,” Harkness says. “We should at least get to act like little kids once.”
Nelson adds that they’ve done activities where they had students find examples of key concepts in Disney movies, and sometimes their own childhood “to make it personal and relatable,” she says.
While the Undergraduate Teaching Fellows aren’t compensated monetarily for their work, they receive three credits for the course.
One of the most valuable forms of compensation they receive, aside from the teaching experience, is often the letter of recommendation Saffran can write for programs, jobs or graduate school applications.
“I get to see them in this way that most undergraduates applying to graduate programs haven’t experienced,” Saffran says, adding that she’s written recommendations for almost all of her teaching fellows “that talk about how they’ve done in this very demanding setting.”
She also points out that many of her students go on to successful teaching careers, whether they be in the university setting or K-12 education.
Paulos hopes to be a school psychologist, but teach in South America for a year before she goes to graduate school.
Connell intends to go to graduate school to obtain a degree in elementary education.
Nelson hopes to be a teaching assistant when she enters a Ph.D. program.
Although Harkness intends to go to medical school and will therefore not pursue a teaching career, she says she is fascinated with psychology and has enjoyed the opportunity to be immersed in the material in a different way.
Saffran will speak on a panel about peer mentoring at the 11th annual Teaching and Learning Symposium on May 20–22.
